Progress Amid Resistance

KUWAIT 225Advocacy for women’s rights in Kuwait has been strong and visible inre cent years, particularly with respect to political participation. Althoughthe women’s movement achieved a monumental milestone with the electionof female candidates to the parliament in 2009, activists today stillface challenges as turnout among female voters has been consistently low.Furthermore, the amended election law requires all voters and candidates,regardless of their gender or religion, to adhere to the principles and rulesof Shari‘a (Islamic law). This ambiguous requirement has led conservativeIslamist parliamentarians to exert mounting pressure on the governmentto compel women ministers to wear the veil, with the National Assembly’slegal and legislative committee in 2008 going so far as to find female ministerswho refused to wear the hijab (headscarf) while being sworn in guiltyof having violated the constitution and the elections law. 7Islamists have dominated Kuwait’s parliament since the first postwarnational elections in 1992. Their rise to power is partly the result of theirstrong grassroots organizations and community-outreach programs. Theirmessage of social justice, anticorruption, and religious authenticity has hada great appeal among the electorate, including women. While the Islamists’call to make Shari‘a the main source of legislation has been a contentiousissue in national politics, they have succeeded in passing a number of lawswith conservative overtones. These efforts include a women’s early retirementbill intended to enable mothers to devote their time to child rearing,a measure imposing gender segregation in postsecondary schools, and alaw that criminalizes cross-dressing. 8Government restrictions on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)and freedom of assembly present additional challenges to women’s rightsactivists. Formal political parties are banned, but numerous informal politicalgroups are active both inside and outside the parliament. Kuwait’sNGOs, which have had a wider impact on society than many politicalgroups, are controlled and funded by the state. The government has,however, made some institutional efforts to address human rights issuesdirectly. The Kuwait Human Rights Society was finally licensed in 2004after much struggle, and the following year, the Ministry of Justice establisheda Human Rights Committee to review and address human rightsviolations in accordance with national laws. In addition, the parliament’sHuman Rights Defense Committee set up an Expatriate Workers AffairsCommittee to deal with individual complaints from foreigners livingin the country. Despite an apparent interest among the political elite in